After being introduced as the new coach of the Kentucky Wildcats a few weeks ago, Mark Pope is putting together quite the roster for his first year coaching the Wildcats.

Kentucky most likely won’t return a single player from last year’s team, but that means Pope has more roster spots to fill with his guys and he’s doing a terrific job so far.

Pope has wasted zero time adding Amari Williams (Drexel University), Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), Collin Chandler (recruit), Lamont Butler (San Diego State), Otega Oweh (Oklahoma) and retaining Kentucky Mr. Basketball Travis Perry.

Now, he’ll meet with Utah State transfer Great Osobor in Lexington.

Osobor led the Aggies in points (17.7), rebounds (9) and blocks (1.4) last season.

Considering Kentucky already has Carr and Williams at the center spot, Osobor could slide in at either forward spot (depending on how big/small Pope wants his lineup to be) and make an immediate impact at both ends of the floor.

Per Kentucky Sports Radio, Osobor’s family will travel from England and join him on his visit.

Pope and his assistants appear to be establishing a culture and hand-picking veteran guys in the transfer portal with winning attitudes. In addition to Osobor’s meeting this week, Pope is schedule to meet with Dayton transfer Koby Brea on Tuesday.

Check back here for more updates on Pope’s roster build.

Tweet of the Day

Mark Pope is committed to the grind.

Headlines

No. 4 Kentucky drops weekend series at No. 24 South Carolina – Cats Pause

The Cats have now lost back-to-back series.

UK Fan gets Unique Chance to Meet Mark Pope – Vaught’s Views

BBN is on cloud nine right now.

McIlroy, Lowry win Zurich Classic in playoff – ESPN

This was a fun event.

Sheppard Made Right Choice Heading To NBA – Vaught’s Views

Just made sense.

Mark Daigneault wins NBA Coach of the Year – USA Today

Well-deserved.

Andru Phillips Ready to Begin NFL Work with Giants – Vaught’s Views

He should have an immediate role.

Georgia reels in Arizona State QB transfer Jaden Rashada – 247Sports

Potential starter for 2025.

Wake Forest transfer Andrew Carr commits to Kentucky – KSR

Sunday night fireworks.

2024 PGA Championship odds, field – CBS Sports

Coming to Louisville in two weeks.

It’s looking more every day like Kentucky will actually field a full roster under new coach Mark Pope — and it’s shaping up to be a pretty good one. A very old one, too. Pope has been on the job for just 16 days and inherited a roster of zero scholarship players. Now he has six.

Andrew Carr, a 6-foot-11 forward from Wake Forest, became the latest addition and fourth transfer to pick Pope and the Wildcats. He gives Pope’s high-octane, 3-point-heavy offense a legitimate stretch-4. Carr averaged 13.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.5 blocks last season for the Demon Deacons — and he made 37 percent of his 3s on almost 100 attempts.

Also notable: Carr has played 117 college games and made 112 starts. He’s part of a dramatic makeover in the makeup of Kentucky’s roster, which was perpetually young under Pope’s predecessor, John Calipari. This new group already has Carr, former San Diego State guard Lamont Butler (131 games, 102 starts), former Drexel center Amari Williams (105 games, 79 starts) and former Oklahoma guard Otega Oweh (60 games, 37 starts).

Even one of the Cats’ two incoming freshmen, former top-40 recruit Collin Chandler, is 20 years old after serving a two-year Mormon mission. And Kentucky is only going to keep getting older as it continues building out the roster through the transfer portal.

Pope hosted former Saint Mary’s guard Aidan Mahaney (69 games, 60 starts) for a visit over the weekend. He’ll host former Utah State forward Great Osobor (104 games, 38 starts) and former Minnesota guard Elijah Hawkins (92 games, 88 starts) for visits this week. Pope’s best player at BYU, 6-foot-7 wing Jaxson Robinson (96 games, 44 starts), also just entered the transfer portal and the Wildcats will be a major player for his services.

As for the latest addition, Carr might be the most skilled player on the roster so far. He had 31 points and 11 rebounds against Georgia in the NIT this season, dropped 28 points on eventual Final Four team NC State and had 26 points, six boards, three blocks, two steals and two assists in a win over Florida. He also had a 12-and-12 double-double against Virginia, an 18-point game against Duke and 17 points, five rebounds and three assists against Clemson.

Not only is he a strong addition, but Carr represents another big recruiting win for Pope. Carr came to Lexington straight from a visit to Texas Tech. Then he took a visit to Villanova right after the trip to Kentucky. And by Sunday night, he announced his commitment to the Cats. This on the heels of Pope’s whirlwind to end last week: he hosted Oweh on Thursday, locked up a commitment and flew across the country to Las Vegas on Friday to close the deal on Butler. He was back in Lexington that same night to welcome Mahaney and Carr.

That’s how you go from zero to six players in 16 days.

Required reading

(Photo: Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)

Kentucky Basketball has filled out its staff nicely after hiring Mark Pope as the new head coach.

Since the hiring of Pope, Kentucky has hired former Georgia head coach Mark Fox, former BYU assistant Cody Fueger, former G-League Ignite/USC assistant Jason Hart, and former Baylor assistant Alvin Brooks.

With all of those hirings, Kentucky still needs to hire one more assistant coach for the staff.

Although fans are eager to finish out the staff along with getting a completed roster, it may take some time to find the last staff member for the team, according to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports.

Remember, there are now five assistant spots for handling on-court coaching, but only three of them can recruit off campus, those being Brooks, Fueger, and Hart. This final hire is one of the spots for a coach who can’t recruit off campus.

Early on in the process of filling out the staff, many media members and fans thought Keegan Brown could make his way from BYU to Kentucky, but that never came to fruition, along with Orlando Antigua possibly wanting to stay. He has since taken a job at Illinois.

Kenny Payne was an option, but he has since accepted a job at Arkansas to team up with John Calipari. Of course, there were some talks of former Kentucky basketball players joining the staff, including Jeff Sheppard, Scott Padgett, Derek Anderson, Rajon Rondo, Tyler Ulis, and others.

With the staff being basically completed, Pope and Co. will now start to finish the roster for this upcoming year’s team, with a lot of openings to fill and not too much time to do so.